B-25 Mitchell
IN THE SPRING of 1942, the war in the Pacific was going badly for the U.S. As victory followed victory for the Japanese, the Americans wanted desperately to strike back if only to revive morale. Unfortunately, there seemed to be no way at the time to accomplish this. Sending an aircraft carrier task force close enough to Japan to launch an air raid and recover the planes would probably have resulted in the loss of all the ships involved. Finally, someone suggested finding a long-range bomber-one that could take off from a carrier at a safe distance, bomb Japan, and continue on to land in China. The plan had merit, and Lt. Col. James H. Doolittle was assigned to work out the details. Thus began the famous "Doolittle Tokyo Raid."
Fokker DR-1 Triplane
OF ALL THE fighter planes of World War One, the German Fokker DR-1 is probably the best known. Even people with virtually no knowledge of aviation history recognize the Red Baron's airplane. The success that Baron von Richtofen and other aces enjoyed while flying the DR-1 certainly contributed to the plane's fame. Of course, its distinctive appearance no doubt helped to secure its place in aviation history as well. Actually the DR-1 saw front-line service for only a fairly short period of time. With rapid advances in aircraft design and power plants during WW I, planes became obsolete faster than today's computer systems. The DR-1 entered service at the end of August 1917, and was retired from combat nine months later, in May 1918.
Kit Conversion: RC to CL
FOR SOME TIME, I have wanted to design a Control Line sport model that would be easy to fly, four-cycle-powered, and three-line-controlled. A four-cycle engine is a good choice for powering a sport-type CL model, because CL models are often flown in urban areas where noise can be a problem. This RC-to-CL kit conversion is a shortcut that got me into the air in a lot less time and with a lot less effort than is involved in designing a model from scratch. This particular model is also a good trainer for learning the piloting techniques used in flying a typical three-line Scale model.
